Albreht Durer German artist Date of Birth: 21.05.1471 Country: Germany

Biography of Albrecht Dürer

Albrecht Dürer, a German painter, draughtsman, and engraver, was one of the greatest masters of Western European art. Born on May 21, 1471, in Nuremberg, the main center of German humanism, Dürer's artistic talent, business acumen, and worldview were shaped by three people who played the most important role in his life: his father, a Hungarian jeweler; his godfather, Koberger, who switched from jewelry to publishing; and his closest friend, Wilibald Pirckheimer, an outstanding humanist who introduced the young artist to new Renaissance ideas and the works of Italian masters.

Dürer learned the basics of painting and woodcutting in the workshop of the artist Michael Wolgemut. After several years of study, he traveled to Colmar in 1490 to meet the great engraver Martin Schongauer, but arrived after his death. From 1492 to 1494, Dürer stayed in Basel, the largest center for illustrated books production. It was here that the young artist became fascinated with woodcutting and copper engraving. However, among the numerous engravings attributed to this period of Dürer's career, only the frontispiece for the edition of St. Jerome's letters in 1492 can be considered his work.

In 1494, after visiting Strasbourg, Dürer returned to his hometown but soon embarked on a journey to Venice. On his way, he created several remarkable watercolor landscapes, which were among the earliest works of this genre in Western European art. Upon his return to Nuremberg in 1495, Dürer opened his own workshop and began making drawings that his apprentices turned into woodcuts. By printing a significant number of copies, Dürer started using agents to sell his engravings throughout Europe. Thus, he became not only an artist but also a publisher. His reputation was solidified with the publication of the Apocalypse series of woodcuts in 1498.

During this period, Dürer's self-portraits, more than his own words, revealed his constant desire for self-awareness and the formation of his own identity. His first self-portrait was created at the age of thirteen, portraying him as a sensitive young boy. In the Self-Portrait with Carnation (1493, Louvre), he depicted himself as a twenty-two-year-old in a refined and elegant manner. In the Madrid Self-Portrait (1498, Prado), Dürer presented himself as a successful man. These self-portraits reflected the Renaissance approach to interpreting the artist's personality as someone with high intellectual and professional status.

In 1500, these tendencies reached their climax in the Self-Portrait as Christ (Munich, Alte Pinakothek). In this work, Dürer's vanity, evident in his earlier self-portraits, is replaced by sober directness. The figure is strictly frontal, with the eyes drawing attention, and the tonal range of the flesh is complemented by various shades of brown against a dark background. With this artwork, Dürer aimed to convey the idea that the artist, like God, is a creator.

From 1503 to 1504, Dürer created remarkable watercolor studies of animals and plants, with his most famous being The Great Piece of Turf (1503, Vienna, Museum of Art History). Painted in various shades of green, the plants are depicted with unsurpassed precision and accuracy. The engraving Adam and Eve (1504) is monumental and shows classicizing tendencies. Both figures are the result of Dürer's studies of human proportions, which occupied him throughout his life. In this period, Dürer also started experimenting with metal engraving, allowing for finer and more flexible lines than those achievable with woodcutting techniques.

In 1506, possibly to escape the plague, Dürer returned to Venice. His attitude towards the city was ambivalent. It was both a den of fraudsters and thieves and a place where "I am master, while at home I am but a parasite." In the altarpiece for a German church in Rialto, The Feast of the Rosary (1506, Prague, National Gallery), Dürer used the traditional Italian iconography of sacra conversazione (Madonna enthroned with saints on either side). The painting depicts the Madonna and Child being worshiped by the Emperor and the Pope, with a crowd of people behind them, many of whom were contemporaries of Dürer.

Upon his return to Nuremberg, Dürer continued to work on engravings. However, between 1507 and 1511, paintings played a more important role in his body of work. Dürer seemed uninterested in the widespread technique of sfumato (softening outlines in painting) and continued to paint in a rigid linear style. During this period, he created works such as Adam and Eve (1507, Prado). The elongated bodies with subtle indications of gender, placed against a dark background, are more graceful than Adam and Eve in the 1504 engraving. In 1508, for the Dominican church in Frankfurt, Dürer painted a large altarpiece, The Assumption of the Virgin (not extant, known only through copies). Its composition reflects the influence of Italian two-tiered Assumption artworks. Through this scheme, Dürer achieved remarkable monumentality in the image.

In 1511, upon the commission of the merchant Matthäus Landauer, Dürer painted The Adoration of the Trinity (Vienna, Museum of Art History). This was his most ambitious work. The Trinity is depicted at the center (the Holy Spirit as a dove, God the Father crowned, and the crucified Christ); around them are saints adoring the Divine Throne, forming four groups: martyrs with the Virgin Mary on the top left, prophets and prophetesses with John the Baptist on the top right, church leaders at the bottom left, and laypeople with the Emperor and the King at the bottom right. At the very bottom, there is a landscape with a lake, where a solitary figure of Dürer is shown with a board inscribed with a message. The painting is rigid and dry, with gleaming colors that appear almost metallic. The solid and dense forms contrast with the softness of the landscape and clouds.

If from 1507 to 1511 Dürer mainly focused on painting, the years 1511-1514 were dedicated primarily to engraving. He released the second edition of the Apocalypse, the Life of the Virgin series of twenty woodcuts, the Great Passion series of twelve engravings, and the Small Passion series of thirty-seven engravings. During this period, his style became more confident, with stronger contrasts of light and shadow, as seen in works such as The Arrest of Christ (Great Passion series) and The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. In 1512, Dürer published the third series of Passion engravings, which were more refined and delicate in execution. In 1513-1514, he created his three most famous prints: Knight, Death, and the Devil; Saint Jerome in His Study; and Melencolia I.

In 1514, Dürer became the court artist of Emperor Maximilian I. Together with his assistants, he created an engraving (3x3.5m) depicting a triumphal arch and a grand procession. The composition was meant to glorify the history of the imperial dynasty and the achievements of the emperor and his ancestors. Dürer continued to paint portraits, including a remarkable Portrait of Emperor Maximilian (Vienna, Museum of Art History) and The Virgin and Child with St. Anne (1519-1520, Metropolitan Museum). The latter is a composition consisting of three closely grouped figures. St. Anne rests her hand on the shoulder of the young Virgin Mary, who is adoring the infant Christ.

In 1519, Emperor Maximilian died, and the throne passed to Charles V. In 1520, Dürer went to the court of the new emperor. The trip turned into an extended journey through the Netherlands, which Dürer described in detail in his travel diary. He was received with honors everywhere he went, and he saw a wide variety of artworks, from the Ghent Altarpiece by van Eyck to samples of art from Native Americans brought from Mexico by Cortes' companions. Upon his return to Germany, Dürer began to reflect on his observations and wrote treatises on human proportions and perspective, topics that had interested him since his first trip to Italy.

The question of Dürer's religious beliefs remains unanswered. In the subjects of his paintings, both Catholic and Protestant nuances can be found. He sympathized with Martin Luther, although they never met. In 1526, Dürer created the Portrait of Erasmus of Rotterdam (copper engraving), whose moderate religious views possibly aligned with his own. The Diptych of the Four Apostles (1526, Munich, Alte Pinakothek) was a gift from Dürer to the city council of Nuremberg. The four life-sized apostles were possibly painted under the influence of Giovanni Bellini's altarpiece in the Frari Church in Venice (1488). On the left panel, John the Evangelist, who was beloved by Luther, is placed before Peter, the rock of Catholicism. On the right panel, Paul, the apostle of the Reformation, stands ahead of Mark. The diptych may have been created specifically for the recently Protestant city, but the inscription at the bottom can also be interpreted as a warning against any manifestation of religious fanaticism.